When we asked our son to make a wish-list for his upcoming birthday, the only thing he wrote there was to have an Alduin cake for his birthday party. Under no circumstances could I decline his request. It turned out by far the most time consuming project I have ever endeavored. Aside from its complexity, it was also my very first attempt in air brushing (I got this toy on my own birthday a few months ago, but didn’t dare to start using it until now, so Alduin also served as my guinea pig. And, oh boy, did I love it, despite the fact that my whole kitchen is now colored in a gentle brown-silver hue).

The cake itself and the dragon was my attempt to reproduce a sculpture from a set of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Collector’s Edition (a computer game by Bethesda). I started making it using photos I found on the internet. Later, when we purchased the set, I realized that my pretty birdy was getting way too big, almost twice the size of the statue. To make the whole thing proportional, I had to scale up the size of the cake itself. It was made of four 13″x18″ sheets of chocolate cake, soaked in strawberry syrup, and sandwiched with bittersweet strawberry ganache (5 lbs of chocolate). Alduin’s core is made of modeling chocolate. His scales, horns, and spikes are made from gum paste. The double-sided wings are half-and-half (fondant/gum paste). His eyes are Swarovsky crystals. At first, I planned to make them edible from isomalt, but these ruby-like gems were so perfect in their brightness and size, so I changed my mind. I knew Tim would never ever let anybody have a bite from Alduin, so a couple unedibles seemed OK.

On the stone it says “Happy Birthday Tim” transcribed in Dragon alphabet. The script is also by Bethesda. In the game, the runes mean “shouts” or special magic words that suppose to help the player to defeat the dragon.

Tim loved his cake. Seeing his happy lit face was priceless. I hope my dragon turned out recognizable enough, and gives its justice to the famous dragon. I have never been a computer game junkie myself, but this one got me hooked, I have to admit. The Skyrim is amazing, gorgeously designed game, and absolutely deserves the title the best game of the year of 2011.

P.S. I thought I was so clever and original in making the cake as the Collector’s Edition statue, but it’s already been done[1] by Charm City Cakes (aka Ace of Cakes) for no less than Bethesda itself.